AN insurance office is to close with the loss of nearly 30 jobs.

Shocked staff at Axa in East Grinstead were told yesterday the office would be closed in the next two years as part of the company's restructuring programme.

The site deals mainly with commercial insurance and the work will be transferred to the Reigate site.

Bosses at Axa expect most staff to either take early retirement or voluntary redundancy with rest being given the chance to transfer to Reigate.

Spokesman David Ross said: "Nothing is going to happen all at once and people have plenty of time to gather their thoughts and decide what to do.

"As the number of people employed here is so low we think it will be unlikely that there will be forced redundancies.

"We will be talking to staff individually to find out what they are thinking about doing. There may be a chance of retraining and relocating to other sites if people are willing to move or commute."

But a spokesman for the Banking Insurance and Finance Union at the site said he was disappointed at the job losses.

He said: "There have been rumours about closures and job losses ever since Axa took over our old company, the Guardian Royal Exchange.

"We will be working closely with staff and management to make sure everybody is treated fairly."

Yesterday's news followed an announcement from French-owned Axa that it was shedding 2,000 jobs across the UK.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.